Patriots Rumors: Trey Flowers Undergoes Surgery to Repair Shoulder Injury

New England Patriots defensive end Trey Flowers, who led the Super Bowl LIII champions with 7.5 sacks, is rehabilitating from shoulder surgery.

Mike Reiss of ESPN (h/t ESPN's Adam Schefter) reported the news on Flowers, who has played all four of his NFL seasons in New England. 

Schefter said the surgery was "described as more of a cleanup."

Flowers, who was the Pats' fourth-round pick in 2015, is a free agent.

The minor procedure shouldn't affect his ability to land a fat second contract, which he'd be in line for soon after the NFL league year starts on March 13.

The Pats could hypothetically put the franchise tag on Flowers, although that would cost them $17.1 million next season.

Tony Pauline of DraftAnalyst.com reported that the Miami Dolphins are the "front-runners" to poach the lineman from their AFC East rivals. With just $9.6 million in 2019 cap room (fourth-lowest mark in the league), per Over the Cap, they'd need to create some space to get him.

Still, Flowers would be worth the investment for Miami, especially given that the team is expected to release defensive end Robert Quinn, per Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald.

Defensive end Cameron Wake was remarkably productive for a 36-year-old defensive end last year (six sacks), but the team also needs younger players at the position. Wake is also a free agent.

Gregg Rosenthal and Chris Wesseling of NFL.com ranked Flowers as the seventh-best free agent in the class of 2019. They made the following remarks:

While Flowers is more of an interior player or a 3-4 defensive end rather than a prototypical pass rusher, he can make noise from a variety of positions. He's the perfect Swiss Army Knife for a modern defense that changes fronts on a down-to-down basis, and he's already been the most disruptive presence on a Super Bowl championship team.

Pro Football Focus is also a big fan of Flowers and has given him steadily rising grades over his four-year career, topping out at 90.4 (out of 100) in 2018.

Flowers won two Super Bowls with the Pats.